1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a knee airbag device that includes a knee airbag that is inflated and deployed to restrain knees of an occupant at the time of collision, and a method of fitting a steering column provided with the knee airbag device to a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various knee airbag devices have been proposed to protect knees of an occupant. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-104317 (JP-A-9-104317) describes a knee airbag device in which a knee airbag module is disposed inside a column cover that covers a steering column.
However, in the above-described technology, if the airbag module is integrated with a column lower cover, it is necessary to perform the operation of connecting a wire harness to a combination switch and the like, before the column lower cover is fitted to the steering column. Therefore, the column lower cover is fitted to the steering column in a final process. When the column lower cover (airbag module) is fitted to the steering column, bolts are fitted to nuts, or the nuts are fitted to the bolts in a fitting direction from above the steering column to below the steering column. At this time, components such as the steering lock have been already fitted to the steering column. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to perform the operation of fitting the bolts and nuts to each other.